Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[dezz]

He’ll get a clean slate from me but I always just got the overwhelming feeling of ‘meh’ whenever Goss played for Rangers or St Johnstone.
Decent enough technically but no real discernible ‘attributes’ and could easily go missing during games… heavy Craig Clay vibes is what I’m trying to say I think.

[Swami]

Announce Van Veen again. 

[Archie McSquackle]

I'm worried if that's the best they can do for his highlights reel playing for Man Utd reserves. Although the boy who scored from that first free-kick looked quite good, wonder what he's doing?

[capt_oats]

49 minutes ago, dezz said:

He’ll get a clean slate from me but I always just got the overwhelming feeling of ‘meh’ whenever Goss played for Rangers or St Johnstone.
Decent enough technically but no real discernible ‘attributes’ and could easily go missing during games… heavy Craig Clay vibes is what I’m trying to say I think.

I'm kind of in the same place. Like @Swello I genuinely don't remember him from his time at Rangers or St Johnstone so in that respect I've no strong opinion.

On the face of it he seems like a 'not Barry Maguire' signing and tbh him being a shitebag feels less of an issue given we've got a shit ton of grafters and +1 if we're going to chuck Grimshaw back into the midfield mix. If he's decent enough technically and can ping a pass then...cool?

From having a scout about Twitter it seems Exeter fans were hopeful of signing him.

Anyway, here are a few of his goals:

 

Edited August 26, 2021 by capt_oats

[bennett]

1 hour ago, dezz said:

Well....that's a bit underwhelming.

 

 

Will Luke and Matt be coming up to watch him?

['WellDel]

After all the talk and suspense of taking more time to get quality signings in, and noting that Goss' contract expired at the end of the season, there's definitely a feel to it that perhaps a primary target has been missed and he is one from the alternatives list.

As with most, my knowledge of him is limited, but of the bits I have seen my initial reaction is very much meh, much like the Rangers and St Johnstone fans before us.

Anyway, all the best to him and hopefully he can come in and kick on.

 

[Onthefringes]

56 minutes ago, 'WellDel said:

After all the talk and suspense of taking more time to get quality signings in, and noting that Goss' contract expired at the end of the season, there's definitely a feel to it that perhaps a primary target has been missed and he is one from the alternatives list.

As with most, my knowledge of him is limited, but of the bits I have seen my initial reaction is very much meh, much like the Rangers and St Johnstone fans before us.

Anyway, all the best to him and hopefully he can come in and kick on.

 

He’s been training/trialling with others, perhaps a case of waiting our turn?

[rowsdower]

As a lefty with questionable work rate, I will afford Goss the benefit of the doubt that all those pub teams should have given me.

So, with the record of this thread so far I can only assume the remaining 2 signings are ones we've already mentioned on here.

[Ron Aldo]

My earlier post was maybe a bit harsh and, as ever, I'll be happy to give Goss a chance.

Rangers fans didnt have many good things to say when he was there although their whole team were absolutely rotten at the time. It's a bit more worrying what the St Johnstone fans have to say about him but he might still do a turn for us.

From what I can remember, Inverness fans didn't rate Tom Aldred and Partick Thistle fans didn't rate Jake Carroll. Sometimes making the step up to a bigger club brings out the best in players...

[well fan for life]

I'll concede that he's already an improvement due to his high xNBRC (Not Being Robbie Crawford).

[Neil86]

As @capt_oats said, him not being a grafter and being a bit of shitebag is probably good news tbh, we have struggled to link midfield and attack so far, hopefully thats the link, with slattery being the link between the back line and midfield. 

Always, always, always take other fan's opinions with a pinch of salt, see Tom Aldred.

 

[Yorky]

27 minutes ago, Neil86 said:

As @capt_oats said, him not being a grafter and being a bit of shitebag is probably good news tbh, we have struggled to link midfield and attack so far, hopefully thats the link, with slattery being the link between the back line and midfield. 

Always, always, always take other fan's opinions with a pinch of salt, see Tom Aldred.

 

Aldred/Carroll/Roberts.

[Kapowzer]

Echo all of the above, how he did at Rangers is of little relevance, how he did at St Johnstone is more pertinent to us. GA thinks he can do something with him and at our level a managers mettle is forged in their acquisitions and those purchases producing. Robinson got chopped after 4 months due to misfiring shopping list.

I've seen plenty arrive at Fir Park with fanfare and deliver nothing and many have been faced with grumbles and they were a revelation. Roberts being a fine case in point.

I take it we don't sign anyone for less than 2 years these days? Parker must be feeling particularly unloved but he's on a 6 month show us what you've got or enroll in a PT course at Motherwell College.

Can only think watching St Johnstone tonight that if they'd invested some of the £1m reported they've made from UEFA then they could have pushed the tie. Granted their starting point is higher than what took the pitch in Israel a year ago.

[RandomGuy.]

3 hours ago, Neil86 said:

As @capt_oats said, him not being a grafter and being a bit of shitebag is probably good news tbh, we have struggled to link midfield and attack so far, hopefully thats the link, with slattery being the link between the back line and midfield. 

Always, always, always take other fan's opinions with a pinch of salt

 

FWIW I always had him tagged as a "special teams" player before he signed for us, while playing for us, and his current data profile still suggests it.

Doesn't win the ball, doesn't run with the ball, doesn't keep possession well, doesn't progress the ball well, but has a great dead ball delivery. If you could just sub him on for free kicks/corners you'd be pretty well off. 

Company you use obviously well more advanced than me, but can't help but think hes been flagged up as a great attacking midfielder based on non-pen xG, without the context almost all of that comes from free kicks rather than open play. Interesting to see how it plays out.

Edited August 26, 2021 by RandomGuy.

[capt_oats]

30 minutes ago, Kapowzer said:

Echo all of the above, how he did at Rangers is of little relevance, how he did at St Johnstone is more pertinent to us. GA thinks he can do something with him and at our level a managers mettle is forged in their acquisitions and those purchases producing. Robinson got chopped after 4 months due to misfiring shopping list.

I've seen plenty arrive at Fir Park with fanfare and deliver nothing and many have been faced with grumbles and they were a revelation. Roberts being a fine case in point.

I take it we don't sign anyone for less than 2 years these days? Parker must be feeling particularly unloved but he's on a 6 month show us what you've got or enroll in a PT course at Motherwell College.

Can only think watching St Johnstone tonight that if they'd invested some of the £1m reported they've made from UEFA then they could have pushed the tie. Granted their starting point is higher than what took the pitch in Israel a year ago.

Amaluzor's a year, O'Connor's a year and yeah Parker's on 6 months but tbh I'd say that feels...right? When you take into account relative stages of development and presumably squad role. In the case of Parker it really does feel like a more formal, extended trial off the back of the length of time he'd been in the building  prior to signing and in fairness I don't think he's been sold as anything else.

Same goes with Amaluzor and to a lesser extent O'Connor. They're both projects and and 1 year deals reflect that.

So far we've signed 10 players (with 18 having moved on) and the split is:

6 months - Mich'el Parker
1 year - Justin Amaluzor, Darragh O'Connor
2 years - Kevin van Veen, Juhani Ojala, Sean Goss
3 years - Connor Shields, Kaiyne Woolery, Liam Kelly, Calum Slattery

There seems to be a clear correlation between profile and contract length.

As a comparison here's the 19/20 signings (13 total):

6 months (initial) - Bevis Mugabi
1 year - Chris Long, Christian Ilic, Ross MacIver
2 years - Declan Gallagher, Liam Polworth, Casper Sloth, Jake Carroll, Jermaine Hylton, Sherwin Seedorf, Christy Manzinga
Loan - Devante Cole, Mark O'Hara, 

Edited August 26, 2021 by capt_oats

[Kapowzer]

Parker was only mentioned to facilitate the PT one liner FYI

[Swello]

Anyone know how Goss's missus feels about the merits of the greater Motherwell area?

[Swello]

Also - Chairman Flao might be the only living example of a genuinely good reply on a Motherwell related twitter account

[Luke92]

I'm honestly fine with Goss coming in. From R*ngers fans I have spoken to he wasn't as bad as some have made out. Most have alluded to him having decent creatively and being quite gifted technically. Main negative was he seemed to fall out of games a lot. All a matter of opinion I guess but I think there is certainly something there.

I am quite curious what this means for our central midfield. I would imagine that Slattery has come up as a nailed on starter. If he's playing with Goss I'm not sure the midfield will have enough bite to it even when paired with someone like O'Hara who is more physical. Donnelly might be ahead of Goss in the pecking order but to be honest I've not really been that impressed by his start to the season. Obviously you have the likes of Grimmy but I'm not sure if GA will see him as a starter in front of Goss. I'm definitely in favour of us having more footballers in the team but I'm just concious that we are lacking a bit of dig in the middle of the park at times.

[capt_oats]

On 27/08/2021 at 00:48, Kapowzer said:

Parker was only mentioned to facilitate the PT one liner FYI

Fair play. I'll happily put my hands up to having been whooshed there.

On 27/08/2021 at 00:15, RandomGuy. said:

FWIW I always had him tagged as a "special teams" player before he signed for us, while playing for us, and his current data profile still suggests it.

Doesn't win the ball, doesn't run with the ball, doesn't keep possession well, doesn't progress the ball well, but has a great dead ball delivery. If you could just sub him on for free kicks/corners you'd be pretty well off. 

Company you use obviously well more advanced than me, but can't help but think hes been flagged up as a great attacking midfielder based on non-pen xG, without the context almost all of that comes from free kicks rather than open play. Interesting to see how it plays out.

@Swello alludes to it on the previous page but I think it's fair to say that Goss is our Polworth replacement. The irony of course is that our good form that ended up with our finishing relatively comfortably mid-table was without Polworth actually playing in the team.

In that respect it doesn't feel like we've gone baws oot to "get" Goss but rather he's someone who's available and at least in part fits a niche. Equally though I doubt he's a cheap option and as you mentioned the other day he's a relatively high-profile player (in Scottish league terms).

I guess it'll be interesting to see if we bring another midfielder in and also if there's anyone moving out the door be it on loan or permanently as 27 players has us feeling pretty heavy on numbers (although not necessarily 'bloated').

For all we have this team up with the analytics company (and we've added a second performance analyst to the staff over the summer) he's been in on trial since last week (which has been a theme with recruitment this summer) so we've had a look at him beyond the numbers.

I'm still fairly sceptical about him but equally I'm looking around teams with our budget and struggling to see a player who's been signed or left who plays that role that I'd be up for us taking a punt on. Regan Hendry maybe? Shinnie?

Edited August 28, 2021 by capt_oats